Orchard Capital launches long/short fund

Orchard Capital has launched the Orchard Gemini Equity Long/Short fund. It started trading in January with a 0.41% gain and targets a 20% annual return and a total size of $500 million.

The firm currently has $400 million in assets under management in other fund vehicles, and about $70 million of that is in equities. The new fund is being launched with private capital from the manager's principals.

Net exposure is expected to oscillate between 20-30% net long to 20-30% net short, the latter expressed primarily through equity derivatives rather than single-stock shorts.

The Gemini fund is managed by Alex Lin, who used to head equity trading at Credit Suisse, where he worked with Teall Edds, who runs Orchard along with Stu Wilson.

Edds and Wilson also took over the Asian operations and funds of Start Investments in 2009, and were later in the year joined by Michael Mills, previously a senior capital-introductions executive at Citi.

The prime brokers of the new fund are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, and the fund administrator is Bank of New York Mellon.